Back home, showered & fed here in NorCal... only minor near-overheating of the RV (cured by a stop at a great brewpub in Davis) and the usual amount of dumb drivers, none of them Burners that I could tell.

There's so many burners in the Bay area, on 80 we had a regular crew surrounding us, including a brief encounter with a large silver fishmobile just as my compadre was talking to his boss on the cellphone - "Yeah, it was great - there's a huge fish on the road!" - yet another BurningMan moment...

I got home to Monterey, Ca. on Sunday night. I thought it was cool that as we left BRC we were surrounded on the road by nothing but other burners. By the time we made it to Reno I would say about 1/2 the cars on the road with us were still fellow burners.....we gradually spread further and further apart, and by the time we passed Sacramento, the number of burners on the road with us was very low, but we were still spotting tell-tale Playa dust covered cars all the way to Santa Cruz.... It made the drive home a little more pleasant just honking, waving, or smiling at our fellow burners, almost like we just extended the borders of Black Rock City all the way to the pacific....

My weird experience: Having breakfast on the road in Evanston, Wyo. I get to talking to another traveling burner. We're exchanging contact info so I can get him a URL, and he asks "What's your name?" It felt really weird saying "David Talley."

Well on the way home, ChloeDancer and I stopped by Reno for a nice little buffet dinner (which I can easily say is one of my favorite meals of all time).

Anyway, I took time to notice all the people mindlessly putting money in their slot machines chain smoking cigarettes. Feeling so "enlightened" from the burn, it just shook me as pathetic or sad? Everyone seemed so miserable and dead in there.

don't let him fool you folks.....i drove 80% of the way home, and all the way from reno to san luis practically, except for 10 minutes when i woke his ass up, made him try driving, noticed he was sleepy and took the reigns again..........we made it, don't worry i stopped to nap for 1 1/2 hours at a rest stop......let me tell u how good that meal in Reno was, even tho we were fithy and looked homeless.........and our first shower at 5am.....we took it til the water was ice cold.

Dear BRC Family
It is with great sadness that I wish to tell you about a fellow burner,who we saw die on the way home.
It was sunday at 7:00 our time about 10 miles outside of Elco Nevada.
We were driving along and saw dust rise from the side of the road. Another car had stopped and people were running out to the roadside with a first aid kit.
A light bronze SUV, possibly a GMC, had flipped end to end twice- then rolled several times before stopping.The engine was still running- there was no one inside.
Jim was first to get to her. She had been thrown about 12 ft from the car. It was a horrible site her body was broken and she was obviously dead. The other witness checked for a pulse- there was none. Then he reached in to the mangled vehicle and shut the engine off. I walked up to the car just after he had shut it off. The dark interior did not hide the amount of blood inside. I was looking underneath the car for another victim when I made the horrible discovery of her left arm on the ground. It was next to the passenger side wheel. The hand was palm down. A large skin flap from the shoulder was bunched at the top. Her arm must have been caught in the seatbelt she Obviously was not wearing and was then ripped from her body.
Nearby was her bloody bra and tshirt. A boot here, chapstick there... Another witness and myself covered her arm with what was left of the shirt that had also been ripped from her young body.
She had medium length dredded light brown hair-she was a taller girl in her early 20's. She had a blue decorated playa bike and a dark leather cowboy hat with a rolled brim.
She was headed back to Colorado from the burn and her body is being flown back to her family in New Jersey.
She had almost no camping gear ( of what was spread about the field where we found her) so,I think she must have camped with others- or slept in her car.
There was a pipe nearby.
PLEASE- Oh PLEASE, Learn from her mistake. She obviously didn't sleep enough, partied too hard and may have smoked on the way home and fell asleep at the wheel. This beautiful life with so much potential ended so horribly.
If you think you know the identity of this girl please email me. I am still very disturbed by witnessing her death. I worry about her friends who don't know what happened to her. I wish to send flowers to her funeral.
Please- remember her next time you leave Black Rock City- wear your seat belt and ask yourself- Am I too tired to drive?
Love to you all
Amyl and Jimbobwe
ps- we now know her name was Kimberly Pisarcik- she was 33 and a Vet tech from Evergreen Co.- if you met her- please honor her in memory

Heading west into SF on Monday night, heard the traffic report. Something to the effect of, "unidentified debris on 80 west". Pictured a large golden wing or giant toadstool or pile of stilts or dusty parachute or metal flames or...

We drove home amidst burners on Sunday night and it was so sad passing by the dust covered cars and the sullen faces. No one smiled at us, no one waved at us, no one seemed to have any energy for anything except following the dull gray road back to the real world. We pulled over in Reno and got some cold, greasy fast food, which was pretty sad, since I'd spent the whole week anticipating my first hot meal back in "civilization" and instead I got cold MacDonalds.

In MacDonalds I saw lots of dust caked, dull eyed burners waiting around and I smiled at each of them, tried to catch their eye because I knew they had to be mourning just as I was and I wanted to carry the love of the playa back with me. I figured they could reciprocate my knowing glance, smile with the knowledge that we had all just been through something together, even if we hadn't met out there . . . and yet not a single one of them smiled or returned my gaze . . . just turned away. I guess because we were back in the real world, and in the real world you aren't allowed to smile at random strangers, you aren't allowed to strike up conversation with the person next to you. I couldn't really hold back the tears. I confess I wept a little at the table.

Yesterday school started and it was back to the daily grind. I made an effort to smile or say "hello" to EVERYONE who caught my eye, despite the fact that NO ONE returned my efforts. I left school slightly disheartened and drove home sullen and bleary eyed.

Just as I approached my exit, I glanced at the car next to me and saw a busted-ass blue vehicle covered in a thick film of dust, the windows open and a tired looking young girl with matted, dusty hair gazing back at me from within. I turned back to the road and started to exit the freeway before snapping back for a double take a second later. My eyes wandered to the back of the car, where I could see sleeping bags and water bottles stuffed in the back, and somehow I just KNEW . . . I didn't have to force my smile, it came naturally. She smiled back, lifting one hand in a weak wave. I think she knew too.

We blew a tire on our trailer outside sacramento. I woke up to the driver yelling 'oh shit' and i thought we were about to crash. Luckily we made it to the side of the road, and 3 hours later managed to limp into a hotel parking lot. Some burners from Santa Cruz saved us by stopping and giving us tools (thank you wherever you are). The episode was slightly more scary than the cow we almost hit just before gerlach on the way to the festival. Now I'm in palo alto contemplating how to get back to vancouver... it seems my co-riders are more interested in hanging out with the ladies they met on the playa than ever going home so it looks like it's greyhound for me the rest of the way.